1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information provision system which provides a user who keeps a portable terminal with warning information and disaster prevention information and an apparatus and a method for implementing the system, particularly, to an information provision system which provides the user with warning information and disaster prevention information in accordance with the position of the user.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, portable terminals equipped with position information measurement portion such as GPS (Global Positioning System) are on the market. Carrying such a terminal readily allows checkup of the user's current position and transmission of the position information.
Services have been devised which utilizes the position measurement feature. For example, JP-A-2001-338373 discloses a system where a target person carries a portable terminal equipped with position information measurement portion. On a request from a guardian of the person, center apparatus receives position information transmitted from the portable terminal and notifies the guardian of the position of the target person, and on a request to search for the target person, watchmen and the like search and protect the target person based on the position information on the portable terminal.
In such a system, the target person who has encountered an accident or a disaster can report his/her current position to the center apparatus to seek for help.
However, with the system of the related art, the user carrying a portable terminal equipped with the position measurement feature cannot perceive an accident or a disaster which has taken place in the neighborhood to avoid a possible damage. It often happens that the user does not notice an accident until he/she reaches the accident Location. For example, even when the train service is suspended due to an accident, a person heading for a station to take a train does not notice that the train is not running until he/she gets to the station. A person may encounter a big accident or incident without knowing it and thus may be ordered not to leave the location.
Under such a situation, it is too late regretting that a bus on a regular route was the right choice or another route should have been chosen if the incident were previously noticed.
According to the system of the related art, a target person who encountered an accident and called the center for help may have to wait for a rather long time before the watchman arrives.